The United States Declares War

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The United States Declares War

The Phony War

• After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, WWII fell into a period of inactive fighting called a phony war
• Britain and France had not yet engaged in direct battle with Germany
• Britain and France fortified the Maginot Line
• Germany fortified the Siegfried Line

• Phony war ended when Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway
• Germany next attacked Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France, in May 1940
• On June 22, France surrendered to Germany
• Germany occupied northern France and the Atlantic coastline
• Southern France was under the control of a Nazi-controlled French government with the capital in Vichy

Britain Stands Alone

In May 1940, Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister and rallied the British people and inspired hope for the long fight the nation faced

• After the fall of France, Hitler set his sights on Great Britain

• The Battle of Britain was fought between Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe, and Britain's Royal Air Force
• The Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against Britain lasted from Sept 1940-May 1941 known as the Blitz
• Initially targeted ships, ports, and shipping centers
• Later shifted to bomb areas of political significance and against civilians

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The Atlantic Charter

• Churchill's perseverance convinced the United States to provide more support
• Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which allowed the president to lend, lease, or sell arms and supplies to any nation vital to U.S. security
• In Aug 1941, Roosevelt met with Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada
• They drafted the Atlantic Charter for their vision for the world after WWII

• Goals included freedom of the seas, self-determination of gov't, and that neither country sought to expand territory
• Concepts would later become the basis for the United Nations, the current international body for security and cooperation among nations of the world
• Although not a binding treaty, the Atlantic Charter publically stated that the U.S. was committed to supporting the Allied War against Axis aggression

Operation Barbarossa

• In June 1941, Hitler broke the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union
• Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa
• At the time it was the largest military operation in human history
• Reasons for breaking the non-aggression pact:
• to capture land Germany wanted for its "living space"
• to destroy the Communist nation, which threatened fascist control of Germany
• Despite initial success, the German army was pushed back by a Soviet counteroffensive
• Hitler's army was undersupplied and he underestimated the Soviet Red Army
• Hitler's failure to advance and defeat the U.S.S.R. opened a second front of attack on Germany
• By the end of 1941, the U.S. would join Britain and the Soviet Union to form the Big Three allies against the Axis

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Attack on Pearl Harbor

• In the Pacific, Japan took advantage of France's surrender to Germany to occupy French Indochina and continued its war in China
• The U.S. began an embargo, or ban the trade of certain materials, with Japan
• Japan could not get gas, scrap iron, or steel from the U.S., which were all resources critical to Japan's war effort
• In response, Japan launched a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base on Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii
• 19 U.S. Navy ships and 300 airplanes destroyed
• 2,400 American people died, including 68 civilians
• It was the attack on Pearl Harbor that ended U.S. isolationism and the American people rallied their support to defeat the Axis Powers
• Within a week, the U.S. declared war on the Axis and joined the Allied Powers
• FDR called December 7 1941 "a day which will live in infamy"
• infamy means something well known for a negative quality

The United States response:

Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin, the Big Three, picture in 1945

I hoped that this charter could encourage my country [U.S.] to back U.S. intervention in WWII on the Allied side. Unfortunately, public opinion is mostly opposed to this idea.

My goal in attending this conference is to get the Americans into the war! Or at least for the United States to increase its military aid to us [Great Britain].